Fire safety and stranger danger!

Jack's class visited the Fire Safety Village yesterday.

Aside from being educational for the whole family (yes, we now have a sound fire escape plan) it provided loads of entertainment as Jack recounted the day's events that evening.

First, Jack demonstrated the Heimlich maneuver. 

He did save Dad from chocking, however, if his hands had been about 2 inches lower, I think there would have been a whole other set of issues.

We also practiced stop, drop, and roll.  It's safe to say my children have rolling around on the ground down pat.

Then there's stranger danger. (I understand this is a serious subject, and we have taken steps to ensure our children are aware of what do to around strangers.  However, sometimes what they say is just downright funny.)

First Jack informed us what he would do if a stranger grabbed his arm; he would pull away.

Alex asked him if he would say anything while he was pulling away.

"Yes," Jack replied,  "I would say [and he makes grunting sounds like he's trying to pull away from someone]."

"Anything else?" asks Alex.

"Oh yeah," says Jack, "I probably just say 'NO STRANGER NO STRANGER!'"

On to the next scenario.

Me: Jack, what would happen if a stranger offered you candy to help him find something in the grocery store or something?

Jack: I would yell NO, STRANGER!

And the clincher...brought to you by Melody.

Jack, again, demonstrating how to pull away from a stranger and how to a kick a stranger.

Alex says, "Ok, guys, if a stranger is pulling at you and you have to kick him, kick him right here."

(I'm sure you can guess where he pointed...)

Melody looks at him and says, "So, basically, you want us to kick strangers in the nuts?"

Things I want to remember...

One of the reasons why I started this blog is to keep a record of all the things I want to remember about my children's childhoods.

Near the top of that list is all the funny, cute, adorable, hilarous, crazy things they say.

They've had some doozies lately...

Melody: My favorite donut is a chocolate blaze.
Jack: I think it's glaze.
Melody: Nope, it's blaze.

Charlie was helping me clean up the kitchen and I told him "thank you".
He responded: You're welcome. What would you do without me?
Me: Yep, what would I do without you?
Charlie: Probably just sit around and look at things.

Melody: Daddy, how big do you think a baby whale is.
Daddy: I'm not really sure but probably bigger than me.
Melody: Oh definitely.

(Alex enters the room wearing a Home Depot t-shirt)
Charlie: Why are you wearing a Walmart shirt?
Jack (yes, he is the child that keeps up all in line): It's a Home Depot shirt.
Charlie: Oh, why are you wearing a Home Depot shirt?
Daddy: Because I work there.
*silence while Charlie looks confused.*
Mommy: Charlie, did you think daddy worked at Walmart?
Charlie: Yes!

Melody, after falling out of her chair onto the floor: I'm ok! Good think I have my head to land on!

Charlie is currently in speech, and while I'm glad we are getting to the root of his speech problem, I am a little sad to see some of his cute word pronouncations go.

A few of my favorites are:
Mel-wee (for Melody, a slight improvement from his first word for his sister, Bubby, still not as cool as what Lauren's kids call her)
Grace-you (thank you)

And lastly:

Melody: Mom, I just love Jesus sooo much I can hardly stand it!

Charlie: I love Jesus more than anything in the world!

Jack (once again, keeping us in line): Please don't forget to pray for me today.  I think it's very important for us always to pray.

Boldness

Over the past few weeks I've realized my children have a boldness about them.  They are real evangelists and totally unabashed in talking about faith.  Part of this I attribute to Jack's fabulous school but part of it is also just their personalities and simply being children.

This boldness has really challenged me over the past few months.  Especially as I've gotten deep into the study of Isaiah at BSF.

More and more, Jesus is a frequent topic of conversation.  Jack is constantly quoting scriptures, his current favorite is the Beatitudes, and can frequently be found reading his Bible.

Melody enjoys listing all the things she loves about Jesus and singing joyfully at all times.  (And yes, I do mean at all times.  We frequently hear exuberant tunes coming from the bathroom!)

I wonder what my life would be like if I lived my faith as boldly as they do.  As boldly and as fully, keeping my constant focus on God.

I pray my children continue to speak boldy, live boldly and desire to learn more about their Savior every day.

PSF and Marnold

Meet Marnold.


Marnold, a pygmy puff, was a gift to me from Lauren on her recent excursion to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.  (I know you're dying to know what she got herself.  A wand.  Hermione's wand.  Yes, she is cool.)

Now, I love Marnold.  But not quite as much as Melody does.  From the moment she noticed Marnold, or what she initally referred to as the pink puff ball, she has taken care of him.

She even named him in a way.  His initial name was Arnold Jr.  However, Melody said she didn't like saying that name and was just going to say Marnold.

Marnold's day begins with breakfast, followed by an eventful time watching Melody play with her toys, and then a nap.  At bedtime Melody will place him in my bed and kiss him goodnight.  She also checks him in the morning to make sure he actually did sleep in my bed.

Who knew Melody was destined to be a pygmy puff mommy?!

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

My boy...

who loves school (and looks so handsome in his chapel uniform) took part in the following conversation the other day...

Me: Daddy, Jack got a 100% on his math and spelling tests and 96% on phonics this week.
Alex: Wow, that's great.
Jack: That's just what I do. I just get it all right!

PSF and Muscles

It's no secret that Jack's greatest desire is to be a superhero.
Preferably Batman.



I have to admit, I've used this to my advantage at every possible opportunity once or twice.

I can't help it. It's just so easy. All I have to do is tell him that I used kryptonite as an ingredient and he will happily scarf down anything on his plate.

Yesterday as he was inhaling peas kryptonite balls the following conversation took place. "Mom," he said excitedly, "I feel these lumps in my chest! I think I'm finally starting to get muscles like Batman!"

"Great." I responded.

"It's because I'm eating all these kryptonite balls!" he said. "Pretty soon I'm going to have muscles just as big as Batman's."

(silence for a few seconds)

"Mom? Why doesn't Daddy have any muscles like Batman?"

It was hard not to giggle at that one.

Oh, and the lumps? His ribs.


Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Ok, I know what I said in my last post. I've been trying to think about what I want to post about these past few days. I do want to get more open and honest about things really going on, but it's hard. After all my mom reads this blog. Just kidding, Mom. I've realized that I'm just not a real emotional person. Or not good at sharing my emotions. I know that people who know me IRL are probably laughing but I'd just like to point out that acting emotional and sharing (verbalizing) emotions aren't the same thing. Ahem.
Anyway, stick with me. I'll get there. After all, this kind of counts,right? I mean, I opened up about how I'm not good at opening up.

PSF and simple lessons

I have learned many, many, many things in my 5+ years of parenting.

One lesson I've gleaned from my parenting experiences is that the simplest answer is often the best answer. And when ever I forget that lesson, my children are quick to remind me.

"Wook! I see tew air-panes!" shouted Melody.

"Wow. I wonder where they're going," I respond.

"Dey goin' to the airport of course!"

Of course.

(And, yes, I think her outfit is fabulous too.)


Hosted by Cecily and Kelli

Singing about Jesus

True Story Tuesday and Chinese syrup

Several months ago we decided to splurge for Chinese takeout. Usually we reserve Chinese for us and give the kids PB&Js but this time we decided to make it a family event.

Our children are not the most adventurous eaters but they. loved. it. We have added it to our list of places we will take our children to eat.

1. ChickfilA
2. Pizza
3. Chinese

In order to get them to try it, we had to fool them a bit.

Oh come on, you know you've done it too.

We told them that sweet & sour sauce was Chinese syrup and that the lo mein was Chinese pasta.

About halfway through the meal, once we realized they would willingly eat this again, we decided to teach them the real names so we wouldn't have to keep up this charade next time.

I said to Jack, "You know, in China they call Chinese syrup sweet & sour sauce."

"Oh," was his reply. "is that what they call it in Australia too?"

PSF and why are you sad?

Melody is really into her feelings. (Duh. She's a girl, isn't she?)

And one of the feelings she frequently experiences is sadness.

Sadness often occurs when she is forced against her will do to something she does not wish to do, such as pick up toys, wash hands for dinner, or stop climbing on people.

She also has moments of sadness when a change is about to occur. These changes include going from a state of wakefulness to asleep.

When she is sad, she wants to let you know. "You wanna know why I'm sad?" she asks in this sweet voice. She is hard to resist...until that defiant "no" at the end at least. She always takes it one step too far.

This is probably my favorite picture of Melody's sad face. She was about 22 months old and, since Charlie had recently intruded upon her territory, she was frequently sad.

She was sad because the two M&Ms she got apparently weren't enough. You would think she had two dozen considering the amount of chocolate on her face.

I can't really blame her for being sad here. Two M&Ms aren't enough for me either.

Do you want to tell me why you're sad?

Hosted by Cecily and Mamarazzi

the sweetest thing to hear

This absolutely precious little girl came up to me the other night and said, "I love you, my sweetest Mommy?"

Have you ever heard anything sweeter?

And then she asked for a cookie. That's my girl!

True Story Tuesday and boobies

Boobs, in the past, have been a popular topic of conversation around our house.
And, yes we do call them boobs or boobies. I have totally been the bad mom that does not teach her children correct terms for their anatomy. And keep your comments to yourself since, yes, it has come back to bite me in the butt. But that's a story for another post.

Jack was 3 and a half when I was pregnant with Charlie and fascinated with my growing belly and the boobs that would be feeding the cause of the growing belly.

Frequently we would have conversations about who has boobs, when they get boobs, and the purpose of boobs.

This freaked me out generated a need for privacy to be taught at our house. I banned Jack from the bathroom whenever anything personal was taking place and we had many discussions about why privacy is important.

However, while I didn't have to deal with Jack staring at me, or rather, my boobs, whenever I was getting dressed anymore, our discussions on privacy had little impact on curbing the boob obsession.

One day I was standing in the kitchen while Jack and Melody were running outside on the deck. It was spring and fairly warm outside so they were shirtless.

"Mom! Come quick!" shouted Jack.

I ran outside to see him pointing at sweet, little Melody, sitting down, plump with all those rolls one year olds still have. You know those rolls. Where their wrists look like they had little rubber bands around them and their legs, tummy, and chest are still rolly polly.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

"Look at Melody! I think she's getting her boobies!"

What a nice thing to say!

We all know that fathers and daughters have a special relationship.

Melody and her father certainly do.


Yesterday, when Melody handed Alex something he said, "Thank you, my dear."

"I not a deer!" Melody exclaimed.

"Sure you are," said Alex, "You're my dear."

"Oh," replied Melody, "You're my billy goat!"

Who knew that could be such a sweet term of endearment?

snow or sand?

This is where were are celebrating Thanksgiving.

We walked outside and Melody exclaimed, "wook at all da snow!"

Too bad Charlie believed her. He was in for a surprise when he tasted that first mouthful. Yes, I said first.

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I forgot camera cord so I can't download any of my pictures. This is from my cell phone.

So far we are having a great time! We have played in the sand, eaten sand, collected shells, shoveled sand, and Melody has seen several whales.

No one else has seen whales, but we have seen dolphins. Jack had a special treat yesterday; he went sailing and enjoyed a dolphin show up close.

Today we're expecting more beach fun and lunch at our favorite place, Bud and Alley's. We will be attempting to take a family photo for our Christmas card this afternoon. I'm prepared with many bribes so let's hope we get a good one!

Facebook with Melody

I'm a facebook junkie. I love facebook and I love updating my status when I experience those status worthy moments.

Thankfully, I have a two-year-old. Melody provides me with a lot of status-worthy moments.

I decided to take those statuses (stati?) and turn them into a blog post.

The following is a fairly accurate representation of Melody's activities for the last month.

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I just told Melody not to put fairies in her pants. I'll add that to the list of things I never thought I'd say.

Melody was jumping up and down and I asked her if she had ants in her pants. She said no and that she had fairies in her pants.

Melody just told me her tummy hurt. When I asked what would make it better she said, "A smile!" Oh the sweetness that is that little girl...

[I have] an adorable two year old for rent. She comes with complementary whine.

Melody asked if she could have her fairies if she didn't "put dem in mah pa-ants."

Melody has refrained from putting fairies in her pants today. However, she seems unable to stop licking them.

Melody just said, "Remember when I was a duck? I would quack and waddle my body."

The following dialogue occurred between Marc Osier and Melody. Marc: Melody, can you dance? Melody: No, but I can take my clothes off. Yep, I'm really going to have to keep my eye on that one.

PSF and talk talk talk

My kids are talkers.

Ok, Charlie doesn't talk yet, in English anyway, but believe me, he definitely contributes to the noise level.

Melody and Jack however cannot. stop. talking. They mostly talk at the same time about completely different things which means the noise level at my house is comparable to the airport. Anyone who's been here can attest to that fact.

However, living with talkers does means that I get to hear some pretty funny stuff.

The other day Jack was counting for a long time. "Jack, how high can you count?" I asked, hoping that he would only say 30 or so.
"I can count to ten hundred," he answers very matter of factly.

Jack coming back in the room after brushing his teeth, "Whew. I am exhausted! I brushed every tooth!"

Jack's class went to the dairy last month. On the ride home, he was telling me about how they saw a cow get milked. "It was a girl cow," he said, "Her name was Rose."
"Oh, how did they milk her?" I asked.
"Well, they hooked up this big machine to her gutters."

He also told me how excited he was go get a break from all his school work to go on the field trip. "Day before day, we always work!" he exclaimed.
"You mean, day after day?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah!" he said.

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As Melody's teacher was buckling her in the car last week, Melody was playing with the buttons on the teacher's shirt. "I like your buttons," said Melody
"Thank you," said Teacher.
"I like your boobies too," said Melody.

We received Rice Krispie Treats as a party favor from a very fun birthday party we attended over the weekend. When we got home, Melody showed her's to Alex and said, "Look! I got Christmas treats!"

Melody loves oatmeal. She has been asking for it a lot. Today, after I dropped Jack off from school she said, "Mom, you go make some oatmeal and I'll eat it all up! Isnt' that a great idea?!"

And her latest obsession: ghosts. "A ghost says boo (sounds like she simply blew out a puff of air) and it scares you and then you run."

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Along with all this talking, we've also been doing a lot of jumping, frolicking, and falling...it's finally Fall here! After weeks of looking at everyone else's beautiful fall foliage, I'm happy we finally have some of our own.

Would you believe this is the best picture I got with the three of them? I couldn't sit Charlie down, move back, and snap the picture fast enough.

I'm very flattered that Cecily asked me to co-host with her this week. If you haven't been over there you should definitely stop by. Her creative talents are far superior to mine and, with three adorable muses, she has lots of great blogging material.


Hosted by Cecily and Emily

To play PhotoStory Friday, check this. Copy this code into your post and sign Sir Linky:
<center><a href="http://whatworksforus.blogspot.com/2007/06/iphone.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc50/whatworksforus/pfw.jpg" border="0" alt="PhotoStory Friday" /></a><br/>Hosted by <a href="http://mychaosmybliss.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Cecily</a> and <a href="http://5powellsinatlanta.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Emily</span></span></span></a><p/></center>

True Story Tuesday and The Class Clown

While walking through the mall the other day, this older gentlemen notices my two adorable children as we pass by.

He looks at Charlie and says, in a baby-ish voice, "Well, aren't you a cute little baby?"

Melody looks at him and mimics replies, "Well, aren't you a cute little man!"

Thankfully the man busted out laughing and said, "I think she just made fun of my baby talk."

Melody of course laughed hysterically as well.

Class clown? Most definitely.

Head over to Rachel and Mr. Daddy's place for some more true stories.

PSF and the war eagle song

One of the first songs Jack learned how to sing was the Auburn Fight Song.

And like a true fan, he just wanted to sing it again and again.

Since we are playing Arkansas this weekend, I thought this would be a good time to post this.

Can you believe our future Tiger was only 19 months old in this video?

PSF - I should have named her Ava

A few weeks ago, Melody and Jack got to spend the weekend at their grandparents' house in Birmingham.

One of their favorite activities is a visit to the McWane Center.

Since Captain and P3 are total pushovers, the kids always gets to pick out a present at the gift shop on the way out.

Jack, who is so original, {sarcasm} always picks out a different variation of the toy he got last time.

Melody picked out this

Yes, that's a sippy cup for a little baby with the name Ava on it.

P3 tried everything she could to convince Melody to chose something different. Melody even turned down a stuffed animal (completely unheard of for my huge stuffed animal lover!) for this cup.

And then, being the pushovers that they are, they bought her, what is now known around our house as: The Ava Cup.

I guess I should have named her Ava.

And I can't really blame Captain and P3...it's next to impossible to resist this cutie-pie!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

jump around, jump around

If Jumping Jacks were an Olympic sport, Melody would win the gold.

Except she calls them Jumping Melodies.

She would also win the gold in the whining category too.

I'm just sayin'.

In other news: I did have a BLAST at the concert last Saturday night. You can read the stuff I opted to post about regarding my good time here. You can email me if you want to know the really fun stuff that happened! heehee.

And if you read that post, you know that I am in the market for a new camera. I thought I had decided on one. Then my husband decided to have an opinion. Now, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to win (I mean, I am the woman and all) but if any one has any camera recommendations and/or advice, I'm all ears!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek